All posts tagged ‘Best Toys’

An unbreakable toy is wonderful thing, not least for its ability to break other toys. But a broken toy, as I’ve discovered over the first few years with young children, can be just as much fun as when it was working.

We have a bag in our house that contains things we can’t send to charity shops or pass on to friends because they are broken, incomplete or damaged. It’s a holding area until we admit that these things need to go to the recycling center, and for the non-recyclable bits to land-fill.

Last week I realized that my four year old had been particularly quiet upstairs for a good hour or so — never a good sign — so I went to investigate. I found him sat surrounded by all our old junk as if he had discovered a chest of treasures.

I sat down next to him and asked him what he was doing. “I’ve found all these toys dad, in that old bag.” To him they weren’t broken toys or things that needed to be thrown away but fresh opportunities for fun.

As we picked through the detritus of our family’s plastic toy and gadget habit it reminded me of being a small boy myself, maybe about the age of my son, and of the games I used to make up with whatever toys I could find at the bottom of our old wooden toy chest.

We spent an afternoon together figuring out new games and discovering new fun with our all broken bits and bobs. In fact it went beyond just that afternoon and became a regular feature of family playtime. These are our top 4 broken toy games:

This harks back to my childhood collection of the big slot racer game. Over the years the track gets tarnished and bent and the circuits get ever harder to connect. Eventually I had to admit that some of my track was no longer useable — and not compatible with the newer Scalectrix connectors — so I consigned a bunch of them in the recycling bag.

My son had other ideas however. I discovered him putting the finishing touches to a marble run that took his shiny marble collection from one end of his room, through the hall and into the office. Having two tracks also meant that he could race two marbles down the course at the same time, something that resulted in a highly detailed pecking order for each of his marble collections.

An unbreakable toy is wonderful thing, not least for its ability to break other toys. But a broken toy, as I’ve discovered over the first few years with young children, can be just as much fun as when it was working.

We have a bag in our house that contains things we can’t send to charity shops or pass on to friends because they are broken, incomplete or damaged. It’s a holding area until we admit that these things need to go to the recycling center, and for the non-recyclable bits to land-fill.

Last week I realized that my four year old had been particularly quiet upstairs for a good hour or so — never a good sign — so I went to investigate. I found him sat surrounded by all our old junk as if he had discovered a chest of treasures.

I sat down next to him and asked him what he was doing. “I’ve found all these toys dad, in that old bag.” To him they weren’t broken toys or things that needed to be thrown away but fresh opportunities for fun.

As we picked through the detritus of our family’s plastic toy and gadget habit it reminded me of being a small boy myself, maybe about the age of my son, and of the games I used to make up with whatever toys I could find at the bottom of our old wooden toy chest.

We spent an afternoon together figuring out new games and discovering new fun with our all broken bits and bobs. In fact it went beyond just that afternoon and became a regular feature of family playtime. These are our top 4 broken toy games:

This harks back to my childhood collection of the big slot racer game. Over the years the track gets tarnished and bent and the circuits get ever harder to connect. Eventually I had to admit that some of my track was no longer useable — and not compatible with the newer Scalectrix connectors — so I consigned a bunch of them in the recycling bag.

My son had other ideas however. I discovered him putting the finishing touches to a marble run that took his shiny marble collection from one end of his room, through the hall and into the office. Having two tracks also meant that he could race two marbles down the course at the same time, something that resulted in a highly detailed pecking order for each of his marble collections.

Water Splash by Flickr user steve.garner32. Used under Creative Commons license.

Back in January, to help you save time sorting through all the reviews and gift ideas, I wrote about the 5 Best Toys of All Time. (If you haven’t read it yet, go ahead. I’ll wait. The rest of this post won’t make as much sense otherwise.)

Since then, I’ve had a lot of people chime in about what should have been on the list, or what else I should add if the list got longer, and I had various reasons for narrowing it down to the five I picked.

Some of the contenders:

Bubble Wrap was actually in the running — I had even picked out a photo to use — but I ended up leaving it out. The biggest problem with Bubble Wrap (which, don’t get me wrong, is perhaps still up there in the top 10 or so) is that it’s a single-use item. Once it’s popped, it loses most of its charm.

Rock has been suggested, and is also a terrific toy, but can also do quite a bit more damage than most of the others I ended up keeping. As a parent, I have to admit that Stick and String both have safety issues, but Rock isn’t something to be taken, er, lightly.

Ball, which is related to Rock, also had quite a few fans … but it just wasn’t really in keeping with the rest of the list. You’ll notice that none of the items on the list are actually things that are packaged and sold as toys. That’s the whole point. Sure, Ball is a quintessential toy, but I was really looking for things your kids turn into toys rather than things that start off as toys. You can make a Ball out of String, but you can’t really make a String out of Ball. So I dropped it.

One item came up again and again in the comments: Tape. I have to admit, I should have thought of it. My kids love playing with tape so much that I got them their own tape dispenser (though they still take mine). It’s certainly another toy that has many uses, and comes in small (Scotch) or large (duct) versions. My kids are pretty attached to it. Still, compared to the other items on the list, tape isn’t cheap, and is generally non-recyclable.

But after pondering it for a while over the past week, I think I’ve made my decision about #6 on the list of Best Toys of All Time…

Water Splash by Flickr user steve.garner32. Used under Creative Commons license.

Back in January, to help you save time sorting through all the reviews and gift ideas, I wrote about the 5 Best Toys of All Time. (If you haven’t read it yet, go ahead. I’ll wait. The rest of this post won’t make as much sense otherwise.)

Since then, I’ve had a lot of people chime in about what should have been on the list, or what else I should add if the list got longer, and I had various reasons for narrowing it down to the five I picked.

Some of the contenders:

Bubble Wrap was actually in the running — I had even picked out a photo to use — but I ended up leaving it out. The biggest problem with Bubble Wrap (which, don’t get me wrong, is perhaps still up there in the top 10 or so) is that it’s a single-use item. Once it’s popped, it loses most of its charm.

Rock has been suggested, and is also a terrific toy, but can also do quite a bit more damage than most of the others I ended up keeping. As a parent, I have to admit that Stick and String both have safety issues, but Rock isn’t something to be taken, er, lightly.

Ball, which is related to Rock, also had quite a few fans … but it just wasn’t really in keeping with the rest of the list. You’ll notice that none of the items on the list are actually things that are packaged and sold as toys. That’s the whole point. Sure, Ball is a quintessential toy, but I was really looking for things your kids turn into toys rather than things that start off as toys. You can make a Ball out of String, but you can’t really make a String out of Ball. So I dropped it.

One item came up again and again in the comments: Tape. I have to admit, I should have thought of it. My kids love playing with tape so much that I got them their own tape dispenser (though they still take mine). It’s certainly another toy that has many uses, and comes in small (Scotch) or large (duct) versions. My kids are pretty attached to it. Still, compared to the other items on the list, tape isn’t cheap, and is generally non-recyclable.

But after pondering it for a while over the past week, I think I’ve made my decision about #6 on the list of Best Toys of All Time…